Germany stops exporting Eurofighter to Türkiye

According to the media autlet, the current federal government of Germany is currently hindering the supply of about three dozen Eurofighter jets to Türkiye.

Handelsblatt learned about this from several sources familiar with secret internal government discussions on this matter.

The media autlet writes that in German government circles the arrest of Turkish opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu is called an important reason for the decision against the export license. It is worth noting that the political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is accused of corruption; however, as Handelsblatt reports, the Turkish opposition describes this as a political conspiracy.

Because of this, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is being subjected to sharp criticism from the Berlin government, which calls it "an attack on Turkish democracy." Therefore, in their opinion, stopping arms trade is the right thing to do.

Case of the Istanbul mayor

In March of this year, Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and more than 100 other people were detained in Turkey. As it turned out, among them were the mayor’s adviser Murat Ongun and the director of his election campaign Necat Şahin.

Assets of İmamoğlu Construction, the company owned by the Istanbul mayor, were also seized.

The detainees were accused of corruption.

However, it is known that İmamoğlu is a representative of the opposition Republican People’s Party and is considered one of the main rivals of the current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 presidential elections.

A detailed analysis of why Erdoğan’s rival was detained and the world’s reaction to this event – read in the material by RBC-Ukraine.